Author: Subhasree Thottungal

After Yogacharya Sanjay’s (fondly known as Sanjay Sir) sudden demise in a road accident in Jammu, on 9th May 2018, the entire Mohanji Global family was in shock and deep state of sadness. Many questions and doubts cropped up regarding the reasons behind the sudden demise and the manner of exit especially because those who knew him felt that he was a true yogi who was deeply connected to Mohanji. Also, there were questions regarding what could be done to help the soul. Mohanji patiently answered most of these questions in spite of his tight schedule of travels and programmes. We have collated the responses in a question and answer format since we feel that it is very relevant to most people.

Mohanji – Be Aware – A true master only tells you where to look and not what to see. Individual Karmic freedom is always kept intact.

“Mind goes in roller coaster state when unexpected things happen in our life. Bad and confused states of mind are totally connected to expectations. We expect that “only good things should happen in our life” or “we hope that we will live forever, happy and healthy along with all the people who we love and care for” etc. Expectations are totally connected to our waking state mind. Waking state mind alone.

Awareness is the key. Awareness of our existence leads us to acceptance of truth as all facets and experiences of life literally comes out of karma. Awareness of the inevitable flow of life through lifetimes and inevitable end of incarnations based on individual karma, as well as the faith in the presence of a substratum, eternal divinity through which everything takes place, beyond any human boundaries, so on and so forth. This awareness becomes our support for any internal devastation due to various incidents of our life. They are all the same. All traumas have the same source – expectations and non-understanding of the flow of karma.” – Mohanji”

Mohanji & Yogi

Q: From a Guru’s point of view, please share your understanding of such incidents involving sudden death especially with people like Sanjay sir who was deeply connected to you and was a very close follower? It will be a big learning for all of us.

A: All of us habitually believe that we are here forever. This feeling is based on our attachment and identifications with things around us, such as our relationships with people, places, time, materials and emotions connected with all these external factors. Since there is continuity in our life and lifetime activities and this continuity of activity makes us hope that we will be like this or do this all the time. But we have created a duration in a space within the boundaries of certain time before we took this journey. So all of us have to leave someday, exactly at the appointed time. When can you stay in the body longer? Is there such a possibility? Yes. When the next incarnation is not so immediate or close by. This is one of the options. That means time of death and death state happens, and there could be another 10 or 15 years to go before the next incarnation. Therefore, the person can hang on in the body in coma kind of state even as a vegetable (without any activity), just because the karma with this body is already over and another body or the next life is still away. This means instead of meditating in another plane, until the next body happens, the soul may choose to hang on in the previous body, even though it is not in good condition to experience a normal life. Some of the bed-ridden people are in that state.

Otherwise, if a saintly yogic, purpose of liberation oriented person have to take such a decision, they may decide just to exit the body once the job is done with the body and that job is directly connected to their karmic agenda of this incarnation. Individual karmic agenda is usually not meant to be continuous fulfillment of other people such as relatives or friends.

Fulfilment of Karma

People may ask WHY because they all loved the person deeply. But for the person who exited (or exits), there is no “why” at all. It is purely the end of karmic allowance. In karma, there is no WHY. There is only fulfillment of completion based on certain karmic agenda, requirements or certain desires. So a person will just choose to leave, once the job with the current incarnation is completed. And the reason for exit could be anything. It could be cardiac arrest, hemorrhage; it could be any reason or any form of death. There could be things like “Akala Mrityu” – untimely death. Usually, we assume that a person should exist in the body the full time that is 100 years, 90 years or 80 years etc. But that’s not necessary. That’s just our assumption. What is actually happening is that, as per the karma, they stay in the body and they leave the moment karma is finished with that body. That’s why when an Avadhoota told Mahakali, “Can you extend my life for another month?” Mahakali said, “No. I can’t extend even for one hour. You have chosen your birth, you have chosen your time of death. So you will only abide by that.” Even Gods do not interfere. This is one aspect. (Read those stories written by Mohanji – In search of Precious in http://www.pkmohan.wordpress.com

Now, about leaving in a hurry or a kind of a sudden death – a person chooses sudden death because they don’t want to become a burden to other people, family, relatives, etc. They could have possibly stayed on for another 10 years, in an invalid or a paralyzed condition, but then what happens with the people supporting them? The initial enthusiasm goes as the days go by. Then they become a burden. Every person who needs assistance at home is a burden to some of the relatives if not all. The bhaav (feelings) could change – not initially but they could change over time. The yogic soul decides, they don’t want to go through this process. This has happened – the possibility for the state of death. This is a juncture in life. The Yogi’s soul choose to exit the broken body, quickly and peacefully! This is not a waking state mind choice. The mind cannot understand or choose such things. The choice happens in the substratum, constitution, guided by the spiritual stature of the person. Higher spiritual stature is related to higher state of detachment from everything around, or everything he is used to and one’s own physical body. The more a person is detached (liberated from things around himself), leaving the body becomes relatively effortless. The more the attachment. the more difficult becomes the exit.

Peaceful Exit

However, once again, please understand that this is not a conscious decision. Because waking state mind cannot understand the tapestry of karma. Waking state mind only understands the experiences of being awake such as space-time, materials, sounds and those things, which the waking state mind can easily understand and relate to. Waking mind cannot understand the cause of life or the causes of experiences. Waking mind only knows the effect of experiences. It’s not a conscious decision by any soul, (soul as in, the constitution of soul, mind, body, intellect, the entire substratum). They cannot understand why certain things have happened and why this kind of a thing has happened.

Why does somebody exit in an accident in a kind of hurried way? That is possibly because of some fear they have trapped or some consequence that they would have probably trapped inside. Such as theft in the house, murder, accidental death, suicide, etc – all those kind of things. The option is already kept inside. Not that they are choosing personally. A continuously nourished fear can materialize itself into reality. This is another aspect.

At certain stages, if a liberated Yogi feels suffocating terrestrial binding he can also choose to exit abruptly. Unbound becomes his state through sincere sadhana and lifestyle of detachment. This is the state of liberated existence. If external bindings becomes overwhelming, if it affects the intended flow, the Yogi may choose to leave. This is another option. (Not exactly pertaining to Sanjay Sir)

So understand there is no way we can say that something was a tragedy or something was good or bad. This is something, which is individualistic. All of us, all the 7.5 billion people have created their own structure of life and structure of exit – birth, life, and death. The flavors that you will experience with your current system including body, mind, intellect, ego and spirit is decided by the state and stature while leaving the past body and the desires that ask for fulfillment. It is no body’s business to interfere in that. Because nobody can interfere. All bodies are essentially similar and incomparable. We cannot control even our own flow of thoughts, let alone other’s destiny.

There is another aspect to an unnatural or violent death. When someone we love leaves abruptly, suddenly we are tilted, shaken and that incident forces us to start looking at our own fragile existence on earth and what is life after all. We start looking at life in a more practical way. We may even develop sincere gratefulness for our daily existence. Otherwise, most of the time we are in an illusory world. We think that we are here forever. Every day starts. Every day ends. We sleep, we eat, and we drink. We are used to certain patterns. When a shock like this happens, that’s the time when we realize, that all these could be very fragile. The people around us may not be forever. Then we start valuing life better. We start looking at life with more sincerity and seriousness. The exits of certain people – especially yogis, if they want to use their exit as a message or reminder to the rest of us, they may choose to leave in a dramatic way, that is only to open the eyes of people to bring them to a certain degree of awareness, that life is very fragile and tomorrow might be too late if you do not put your acts together now. It’s important to understand that life is not in our control. If we cannot do something today, may be tomorrow never exists! That reminder, that warning is also very important to understand. We all are living in an unconscious existence. That’s why any kind of exit, sometimes even a normal natural death makes a strong impact on us. Because we never realize, we never think that we will die. That’s the problem. This is something we need to understand.

Living Consciously

Q: What is the role of God and Guru in the exit process?

A: Belief , faith, Personal Orientation, Preferences of life, degree of connection with divine, concepts, prejudices, so on and so forth are all part of one’s karmic agenda. They experience life as they are and what they are made up of. If somebody believes in God or if somebody believes in Guru, that does not mean that their karma ends there. It only means that their priorities have probably shifted based on karmic allowance, from sensory or sense oriented experiences to experiences which are more intangible by senses and mind. They have perhaps begun connecting to something which they consider as higher frequency and believe that this connection will help them to travel to a level of dissolution or detachment where they can experience the larger subtle options or higher possibilities of existence.

This is the reason why they chose to connect to higher masters. This is also guided by orientation and not by mind. Their inherent frequency leads them to connect to the subtle. Mind cannot perceive it. Mind is grossly blind to the subtle. People connect to higher masters or God through bhakti yoga (devotion), jnana yoga (knowledge), karma yoga (Selfless service) based on whatever their nature is or whatever their tendencies or orientations are. With such a connection, their dependency on the sensory or experience side of material life decreases and their connection with frequency which is of higher nature or spiritual nature increases.

Yogi with God

What does the Master do?

Master stabilizes the stature and establishes the yogi into himself. Master does not change anything, like God. God has provided a platform. Master provides a platform for their complete expressions as per the karmic allowance. Masters do that always, to everyone, without expecting anything back. Masters provide platform for their complete expressions as well as completing their expressions. Masters guide and help them to be complete too. Same as what God has given us. God has given us the energy, the substratum, including earth, including our mind, including our chitta (the entire substratum of mind), the thoughts, words, actions so that we could experience our own unique set of experiences. You can enjoy your own experiences based on what you are made up of. Not based on what it actually is.

Pure Energy

When you look at what is within everything, you will only see energy. Then there is no experience. Because you are also energy. When you are looking beyond your senses and mind, all you see is pure energy at work. When you are only connecting to pure energy at work, there is no difference between you and anybody else. No difference between plants, birds and animals. They are all energy at work.

A person evolves into a yogi and connects to a master, since it helps him (or her) with completion and fulfillment, which otherwise becomes a bit difficult. But that doesn’t mean that they have no death. They did have birth. They still have life. They still have experiences and they still have death. So everything is as it is, except the awareness as well as detachment towards all that a lifetime provides including body. Awareness is much larger and higher, so they don’t suffer due to any kind of separations or losses. They never ask why, because everything in life are passing phases. When somebody asks WHY, understand that, that person has not understood incarnation, karma, flow of life through bodies as well as life and death of each body; because that WHY is based on certain expectation which mind nurtures.

What is the expectation? That you will live forever or too soon etc. Nobody lives forever. Whatever has a form, has a duration. It has to end someday. Whatever has begun will end. Whatever has no beginning will also have no end. That is pure energy, pure consciousness. That has to be understood. So even a person in form like Krishna, Rama, various avatars, they all had a beginning and they all had a physical disappearance at some point in their life. But their energy never began, their energy never ended. That is why we still connect with them and get results. A yogi connecting to a Master does not mean that he has got an insurance on his life. The way they exit, the way they chose to go, usually is of a typical yogic nature. That means they don’t want to hang around. When the time is up, they just leave.

Yogi & Higher Masters

We see this yogic state in Sanjay Sir’s case. The medical report said sudden death. That means as soon as the accident happened, he died. That means, he didn’t suffer. This is similar to a death in cardiac arrest. Even though it was Akala Mrityu (untimely death) and Apamrutyu (accidental death) he did not stay in hospital beds for unlimited time going through pain and suffering. He didn’t go through his expected whole life course of 70-80 years. But then, we must assume that was probably not the agenda of that soul.

Then the question is – what about the family? The family members also have individual karma, a personal agenda. They only experience as per that. That doesn’t mean every member compromises themselves to agree with the karmic agenda of the other. Each individual of the family experiences only their own karmic agenda. They cannot change according to somebody else. And also nobody can ensure a duration based on somebody else’s karmic plan. This also should be clearly understood. We all will come and will exit at our karmic time. Not as per the time of other people including family members. There is no mercy in this. There is no compromise in this. When the time is up, we just leave.

So, what does a Master do? Master ensures completion while living and their completion while leaving. Master stabilizes the incarnation by aligning one to his life purpose. Master helps unite the pieces of mind scattered over various desires into focused higher selfless purpose based alignment.

Completion with Master

If the person is bound by the life created material stuff and emotions of life, they can possibly hang on with a very bad physical condition such as pain and paralysis. Attachment also keeps some people stay bedridden with lot of injuries, body ailments, etc. Sometimes it’s a pain for the people to look after them. The emotions connected to the relationships ask them, “oh, why don’t you stay back longer?” Attachment to physical form prolongs their suffering.

The suffering is prolonged when you are emotional. Sufferings are always connected to attachments and corresponding emotions. That also should be clearly understood. There is a pattern. There have been so many devotees of Rama , Krishna, Buddha, Sai Baba, etc. Do you think that anyone stayed on forever? Except a few people like Hanumanji who is cheeranjivi (immortal). They are avatars. They chose that existence as well as its duration. But that’s mostly in sukhsma (subtle) and not in gross form because sookshma is not as much bound by time as subtle. They can indeed take a gross form anytime. But that’s their option. These are all the things that we must understand. There is no question of “why” in karmic pattern.

When a true seeker surrenders and requests assistance to prolong an existence in an already available body, master do help. But that would be transfer from a forthcoming incarnation. The duration of that incarnation invariably gets reduced because of the transfer. A true Yogi would not want to do that. He will usually choose to keep each lifetime intact within its own boundaries to avoid compromises with absolute time between total incarnations as well as accumulation of backlogs.

Sometimes destiny prolongs one incarnation. This is death to one existence and transfer to a totally different pattern in the same body, such as a regular householder suddenly becoming a monk and leaving everything from his past existence. That is almost like two lives in one. This usually happens only towards the conclusions of all incarnations.

Q: What can I do for the person who has departed?

A: The best thing one can do for that soul is to ensure that their immediate family is taken care of. We have already made those arrangements and will continue doing that as much as possible. I spoke to Sanjay Sir’s daughter. I asked her, “What do you want?” She said, “I want to be part of Himalayan School of Traditional Yoga.” I said, “That’s done. You are part of it.”
The Himalayan School of Traditional Yoga was formed because I asked Sanjay Sir at one point in time, “What do you want to do in life?” He said, “I would like to spread traditional yoga to every corner of the world.” I said, “Ok, go ahead with it. I will give you the platform.” I told the same thing to his daughter. She is by default part of Himalayan School of Traditional Yoga. I said, “Don’t hesitate to ask me or any of my people anything you want in life. All the people who love me unconditionally are myself. They will provide it for you, if it is affordable. Whatever is reasonable, whatever is possible, we will do it.”

Secondly, I said, “Nothing has changed. Please understand that he left because he didn’t want to hang on and give you pain. He allowed all of you to move on, because he had to leave. Even if he had some more time before he takes the next incarnation, he chose to remain in subtle form so that all of you can move on with your life and stabilize yourselves. That was the option, which he gave to himself and to you. What you need to do now is to gather whatever are your desires or whatever you have to do, and assist us in maintaining the legacy of your father.”

Himalyan School of Traditional Yoga – A Platform

Three years before, only Jammu knew Sanjay Sir. That was before the Himalayan School of Traditional Yoga happened. Today, the whole world knows Sanjay Sir because of Himalayan School of Traditional Yoga. So please understand that the platform has already changed his life. He left an impact before he left the body. The platform which we created for him has worked for him. Now, you need to enhance it and take it to the best possible heights, where his legacy continues through all of you.

A true teacher never dies. Because his message carries his memory forward all the time. His memory is maintained by what he stood for. That’s exactly what he could give to the world. Especially his dedication to his activity. Extreme dedication, extreme commitment, extreme conviction, extreme consistency and unconditional love. This is enough. If you understand the essence, you will get these qualities as the main things. What you need to do is to ensure that Himalayan School of Traditional Yoga transmits these and you can also use this platform. We have created this platform and you have a place already. It’s up to you, you can start yesterday, any day! This is the best thing we can do.

Extreme Commitment, extreme devotion, Unconditional Love

For anybody who has departed, the best we can support is to do something positive in their memory. It is futile to cry, ask why and blame ourselves and other people. There is no point in blaming the truck driver who hit him. However, if we don’t do anything in a positive way in his memory, his soul will have no happiness. By his soul, I mean the whole substratum, that we called Sanjay Sir at one point in time. Rather than cry over whatever happened, it is important that we do positive actions and just move forward in a positive way so that his presence continues to benefit various people. This is the way to go forward.

We are in constant touch with his family. All rituals and last rites are happening as per tradition. Whatever is possible for us, we are trying to do, what is good for the exited soul, such as annadaan (food donations). rituals, etc. We are also making sure that a fund is created for the family, so that they are happy and contented as much as possible. We will help as a global family for this cause. (For those who would like to contribute towards supporting Sanjay sir’s family, please go to the Himalayan School of Traditional Yoga page set up for this purpose and provide your contact details)

This is not just for Sanjay Sir. Anybody in our group will be looked after like this. Because we are a family. It’s not just a Guru-disciple relationship. I don’t work like that. I operate in a way where people look at me as relative. So we will continue in that mode.

We close with Mohanji’s message today to the Global Family.

My friends,

Just sit quietly for a while. Stop whatever you are chasing. Just let go. Just contemplate. It is high time you do that.

Imagine your total existence on earth is just about 29,200 days if you will live for 80 years in this incarnation. This is about 700,800 hours. If we sleep for 6 hours on an average, we have only 525,600 hours to experience life. If we use an average of 3 hours for bathing, eating and other chores every day, we will have only 438,000 hours left. We may fall sick sometimes. That is a further loss. Few years we spend as a child. Few years in old age. Effective years can be considered about 40? That is about 14,600 days on earth. Do not believe me. Do your own calculation. Contemplate on it. Ask yourself:
A. What do I want from this extremely limited incarnation?
B. Are this comparisons, anger, hatred, jealousy, competitions, conversions, revenge and all other emotions that make mind suffer worth it?
C. Do we really have to lie, cheat, steal, betray, doubt, condemn or convict at all?
D. Why do we choose violence at all? Is the violence our true nature or considering the limited hours on earth, is it worth it?
E. Why do we ever consider other species as lesser than ourselves and decide that they deserve only a second preference?
Contemplate more. Contemplate a lot more. Make a sea of change in life because every life meets with death. Every river meets the ocean sooner or later. Make a lifestyle change today. Right now. Life is not worth all those emotions and sufferings. Life has to be light and love because you are light and love. Keep remembering how tiny, small and fragile is our existence on this tiny planet in the cosmos called earth. Be aware. Shed your ego. Shed all unwanted emotions and catch up with what is lost already in the department of love. It is time. It is high time. Let that be your spiritual practice. Be good. Do good.